Huskies hosting hot Harvard, hoping to snap skid

Crimson riding nine-game winning streak

By David Borges dborges@nhregister.com @DaveBorges on Twitter

Published 5:44 pm, Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Photo: John F. Rhodes — The Associated Press

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

SMU guard Ryan Manuel (1), center Yanick Moreira (35) and forward Shawn Williams (2) defend UConn’s Niels Giffey during the second half of the Mustangs’ 74-65 win on Saturday in Dallas. The Huskies look to get back on track against Harvard Wednesday night. less

STORRS >> Typically, a game against an Ivy League opponent represents little more than an easy win and doesn’t hold a whole lot of importance for a program used to Final Fours and national rankings.

That won’t nearly be the case Wednesday, however, when Harvard invades Gampel Pavilion to take on UConn (7 p.m., ESPNU). The Huskies (11-3) are reeling a bit right now, losing their first two American Athletic Conference games last week in Texas and three of their last five — not to mention their spot in the Top 25 poll.

In fact, in this week’s AP poll, Harvard (13-1) earned exactly as many votes as the Huskies — 41 each, tying the two teams at No. 31 overall.

More Information

MEN’S BASKETBALL GAMEDAY

HARVARD at UCONN

• When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.

• Where: Gampel Pavilion, Storrs

• Records: Harvard 13-1; UConn 11-3

• TV: ESPNU

• Radio: WTIC-1080

KEEP AN EYE ON

• Getting Giffey more shots: Niels Giffey leads the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (61.8 percent) and is hitting 67.8 of his shots overall. But he’s only getting off a little over four shots per game, just 2.4 from 3-point land. In fact, he doesn’t qualify as a leader in overall field goal percentage because he’s only attempted 59 shots.

“I’d like him to shoot 10 shots, wide open,” said Kevin Ollie. “If I can diagram a play to get that, I’d definitely like to do that. You’ve got scouting reports, too. Scouting reports say, ‘We’re not leaving Niels. If the penetration comes, we’re not leaving Niels.’ And Niels is not a big guy to put it on the floor and do two crossovers and get to the lane. That’s not his game. His game is spotting up. A lot of teams are switching pick-and-rolls on our pick-and-pops. We put in some different sets that can move the basketball, and hopefully that works. Hopefully, we can get more spacing, more penetration, drawing kicks for Niels to get off.”

• Road warriors: Harvard’s lone loss this season came back on Nov. 24, 70-62 at Colorado — a team now ranked 15th in the nation. The Crimson have won nine straight since, and most impressive is that seven of those wins have come away from home.

UConn very much needs a win to get back on track, and the Crimson aren’t going to be a soft featherbed for the Huskies to fall on.

“They beat a good New Mexico team in the second round of (last year’s) NCAA tournament,” UConn coach Kevin Ollie noted. “I think they’ve won three Ivy League (titles) in a row. They’ve got some talent, high-major basketball players. They’ve got six starters, they all play hard. (Head coach Tommy) Amaker’s been there for seven years; they know their system inside and out. That’s a great benefit.”

The Huskies’ AAC-opening losses last week at Houston and SMU were the result of a combination of factors: lack of intensity at times, poor defense and rebounding, disappearing acts by some of the team’s top players to name a few. But Ollie is confident that his team is still...well, confident.

“They’re still together. We’ve got to make shots,” he noted. “I don’t feel like we lost any confidence. I haven’t lost any confidence in myself, in my coaching staff and in my players. There’s nobody coming to save us. We’ve got to get ourselves out of it, and we will do that.”

It’s worth noting that even in the best of UConn seasons, the team has gone through rough stretches. The 2004 NCAA championship team had a couple of how-did-that-happen losses (home against Providence, at Notre Dame), and the 2011 champs were 9-9 in the Big East and lost their final two games of the regular season.

“I think we still believe,” said Giffey. “Obviously, it’s a bump in the road. But, for the older guys that have been here, every season has had tough stretches and tough games. I think it’s a good chance to really analyze your strengths and your weaknesses, because when you win all the time, you get comfortable. You stop working as hard as you can. I think it’s a good chance to come back and, hopefully, beat Harvard and analyze our game again and find out our character again.”